CPS 98-1

Rule

Absent parent — a parent [not in the home] who is not primarily responsible for the child's care on an ongoing basis because of a divorce, separation, incarceration, or for some other reason.

Accident — An unforeseen event that causes or threatens physical injury despite prudent efforts to avoid the risk of injury.

Causing, permitting, encouraging, engaging in, or allowing the photographing — A condition of the statutory definition of sexual abuse. It is met whether or not the child participates voluntarily.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.457

Law

Child or Minor — A person under 18 years of age who is not and has not been married or who has not had his disabilities of minority removed for general purposes. In the context of child support, "child" includes a person over 18 years of age for whom a person may be obligated to pay child support.

Texas Family Code §101.003

Rule

Compelling or encouraging the child to engage in sexual conduct — A condition of the statutory definition of sexual abuse. It is met whether the child actually engages in sexual conduct or simply faces a substantial risk of doing so.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.457

Law

Family — Individuals related by consanguinity or affinity, individuals who are former spouses of each other, individuals who are the biological parents of the same child, without regard to marriage, and a foster child and foster parent, whether or not those individuals reside together.

Texas Family Code §71.003

Rule

Note: Consanguinity means related by blood or adoption. Affinity means related by an existing marriage.

Genuine threat — A verbal or behavioral expression of intent that appears true, likely, or believable. A substantial risk. Actions including, but not limited to, choking, suffocating, or shaking a child, or hitting a child on the head.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.455 (b)(1)

Management Policy

Note: Consider the following factors to assess a threat (Apply them to determine if a threatened injury would result in substantial harm if it actually occurred.):

1.   the extent and severity of the threatened injury;

2.   the location of the threatened injury on the child's body;

3.   the child's age;

4.   the child's ability to sustain the threatened injury without substantial harm, in light of the child's physical condition, psychological functioning, and level of maturity;

5.   the frequency and duration of similar incidents;

6.   any previous history of abuse or neglect; and

7.   the way the threatened injury would occur.

Rule

Guardian — Anyone named as "guardian of the person of a child" by a probate court order.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.451(8)

Law

Household — [The Texas Family Code defines household as] a unit composed of persons living together in the same dwelling, whether or not they are related to each other.

Texas Family Code §71.005

Rule

Note: During the receipt and investigation of reports of child abuse and neglect, [DFPS] treats an unrelated person who resides elsewhere or whose place of residence cannot be determined as a member of the household if the person

A.   is at least 10 years old; and

B.   either

i.   has regular free access to the household; or

ii.   when in the household dwelling, takes care of or assumes responsibility for children in the household.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.451(9)

Management Policy

This clarification regarding unrelated persons applies to boyfriends and girlfriends of household members and to baby sitters, when they are in the home.

Rule

Managing or possessory conservator — A person responsible for a child as the result of a district court order pursuant to §153 of the Texas Family Code.

Necessary to sustain the life or health of the child — A condition of the statutory definition of physical neglect. It is met if the failure to provide food, clothing, or shelter results in an observable and material impairment to the child's growth, development, or functioning, or in a substantial risk of such an observable and material impairment.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.471(b)(1))

Texas Family Code Ch. 153

Law

Obscene — Material or a performance that

A.   the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex;

B.   depicts or describes

i.   patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality; or

ii.   patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, sadism, masochism, lewd exhibition of the genitals, the male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal, covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state or a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs; and

C.   taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, and scientific value.

Texas Penal Code §43.21(a)(1)

Rule

Observable and material impairment — Discernible and substantial damage or deterioration.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.453(b)(2)

Law

Parent — The mother, a man presumed to be the biological father or who has been adjudicated to be the biological father by a court of competent jurisdiction, or an adoptive mother or father. The term does not include a parent as to whom the parent-child relationship has been terminated.

Texas Family Code §101.024

Management Policy

Note: CPS distinguishes between the terms parent and absent parent. Unless otherwise stated, parent refers to the parent or parents primarily responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare on an ongoing basis.

Parent/caretaker — Synonymous with person responsible for a child's care, custody, or welfare.

Rule

Pornographic — Containing an image that depicts a child under 18 at the time the image was made, who is involved in, performing, or simulating a sexually oriented act.

Reasonable discipline . . . that does not expose the child to a substantial risk of harm — Correction of a child's behavior that does not result in or risk substantial harm from physical injury.

Reasonable effort to prevent — Actions that an ordinary and prudent person would take to stop an event from occurring.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.451(a)(16)

Management Policy

Sexual conduct — Sexual conduct includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:

Law

 •  Sexual contact — Any touching of the anus, breast, or any part of the genitals of another person with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.

Texas Penal Code §43.01(3)

Management Policy

Note: Sexual contact includes, but is not limited to, touching the clothed or unclothed body directly or with an object.

Law

 •  Sexual intercourse — Any penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ.

Texas Penal Code §43.01(5)

 ·  Deviate sexual intercourse — Any contact between the genitals of one person and the mouth or anus of another person.

Texas Penal Code §43.01(1)

Rule

Sexual assault — Any sexually oriented act or practice that results in harm or in substantial risk of harm to a child's growth, development, or psychological functioning.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.457(a)(1)(C)

Sodomy — Anal or oral copulation with another person or an animal.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.457(b)(4)

Incest — Any sexually oriented practice with a child by a person who knows or should know that he or she and the child are related by consanguinity or affinity.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.457(b)(4)

Substantial harm — Real and significant physical injury or damage to a child that includes, but is not limited to, bruises, cuts, welts, skull or other bone fractures, brain damage, subdural hematoma, internal injuries, burns, scalds, wounds, poisoning, human bites, concussions, and dislocations and sprains.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC §707.451(21)

Management Policy

Note: Consider the following factors to determine if an injury is substantial:

1.   the extent and severity of injury (size, number, depth, extent of discoloration, and so forth);

2.   the location of the injury on the child's body;

3.   the child's age;

4.   the child's ability to sustain the injury without substantial harm, in light of the child's physical condition, psychological functioning, and level of maturity;

5.   the frequency and duration of similar incidents;

6.   any previous history of abuse or neglect; and

7.   the way the injury occurred.

Rule

Substantial risk — Real and significant possibility or likelihood.

DFPS Rules, 40 TAC 707.451(22)

Management Policy

Note: Consider the following factors to assess substantial risk:

1.   the child's age;

2.   the child's physical condition, psychological functioning, and level of maturity;

3.   any previous history of abuse or neglect;

4.   the frequency and duration of similar incidents;

5.   the physical condition, psychological functioning, and level of maturity of the person putting the child at risk; and

6.   any signs of danger or hazard in the child's environment.